Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables

We had some homemade gnocchi in the freezer, and I found this recipe for gnocchi with zucchini, yellow summer squash, and tomatoes in one of my old Everyday Food magazines.  It looked just right for this week.

I had read somewhere that you could freeze uncooked gnocchi.  At first I thought it wasn't turning out well, some of them seemed to be falling apart.  But in the end I think they turned out well and it is worth making a large batch of gnocchi to freeze half for another time. 

Gnocchi can be found frozen and sometimes even dried I think, but these vegetables would be good just tossed with some pasta as well. 

Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables Recipe

adapted from Martha Stewart

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 zucchini, quartered and sliced
1 summer squash, quartered and sliced (or 2 of either squash)
1 garlic clove, minced

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
gnocchi (I had about 3 cups frozen)
fresh basil, chopped chiffonade
grated Pecorino Romano, or parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Coarse salt and ground pepper 

 In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add squash and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until squash is crisp-tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until juicy, about 2 minutes.

 Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook gnocchi. Reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid, drain gnocchi and transfer to skillet. Toss gnocchi with vegetables.  Remove from heat and stir in basil, butter, and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper if needed (my gnocchi was salty enough from the boiling water).  If you want it to be more saucy add some of the reserved cooking liquid. Grate some fresh cheese on top. Serve

Sweet Potato Stuffed Shells

I saw a recipe for butternut squash stuffed pasts shells.  I had sweet potatoes in the house and since the recipe referenced an original version with sweet potato instead, that's what I made.  But I'm sure I'll make it again with butternut squash, because it was very good. I also swapped out the frozen spinach for fresh chard from my garden. 


Sweet Potato Stuffed Shells
1 large sweet potato, (about 2 cups cubed)
6 oz (18-20) jumbo pasta shells
15 oz of ricotta cheese (about 2 cups)
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 egg
5 large leaves of Swiss chard, about 3-4 cups chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
5-10 sage leaves
olive oil

Peel sweet potato, cut into 1/2 inch pieces.  Toss in olive oil and a pinch of salt.  Roast in 425F oven for 15-20 minutes--until easily pierced with a fork. 

Cook jumbo pasta shells according to directions.

Chop Swiss chard into 1/2 inch pieces. Saute in 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, until wilted.

In a bowl add ricotta and egg, stir together until smooth.  Add grated cheeses, chard and roasted squash, stir to combine.

Stuff the shells with the mixture and place in a 9x13 baking dish.  Season with salt and pepper.

In a saucepan heat 1/2 cup butter.  Add sage leaves until crisp.  remove leaves and crumble over shells.  Stir butter gently until it begins to brown.  Remove from heat, pour over shells in baking dish.   

Place dish in a 400F oven around 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.

I Eat Weeds (and so can you)

 Weeds?

I noticed a new young patch of lamb's quarters growing in the back yard, so I thought we would give them a try.  I'd heard that you cook them up and eat them like you would spinach.  But I usually eat spinach raw, so I needed to look up a recipe.

Sandra Lee had a recipe for Parmesan Creamed Spinach, with pumpkin pie spice.  That sounded too interesting to not try.

 We picked the leaves off their stems and washed them in a big sink of water.  (Owen spun them dry--he's the resident salad spinner.)  Then added the lamb's quarter to the cream sauce.

Jeremy walked by and decided what it needed was toast. . . and perhaps a fried egg?

 It was delicious.  They just tasted like greens with a cream sauce.  No strong flavor in any direction.  Not bitter like dandelion greens.  Jeremy suggested next we could try them baked in lasagna--that's the only other cooked spinach recipe we can think of and it should work fine.

Eaten anything adventurous lately?

Creamed Lambs Quarter Recipe:

2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
large bowl of fresh lambs quarter

 In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the milk. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk the flour into the butter and cook for 2 minutes to make a roux. Whisk in the warm milk a bit at a time to avoid lumps. Cook until the sauce begins to thicken, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the pumpkin pie spice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low, stir in the cheese, and let melt. Stir in the lambs quarter and cook until greens are wilted.

Red Beet Risotto (And Mushroom Variation)

Jeremy goes to school for 12 straight hours on Mondays, so that meant we definitely did not have some amazing Valentine's Day planned.  In fact a student asked Jeremy what his plans were and he told her he was in class until 7:30.  So she asked what his plans were for after that.  Jeremy said, "I dunno--maybe watch a movie?"

I told Jeremy that I'm sure he completely crushed that poor girl's dreams about life after marriage!  Because after you get married you're supposed to have romantic special Valentine's Days forever--right?!

Well since we had zero plans for actually doing anything special I thought the least I could to was make a celebratory dinner.

I saw some ideas online for using beets to make "pink" rice salads for Valentine's Day.  I loved the idea but wanted to be sure it would actually be enjoyable to eat not just look at so I really didn't want to experiment with a new recipe.   I thought about just making rice balls, but since Owen wasn't a huge fan of the beets last time I served them (just steamed with butter and salt) I thought I would need to flavor them a little more.  Then I realized the perfect recipe to use.
 

   Risotto.  My family loves risotto.  It's very basic, but the broth and cheese make it very flavorful--I knew it would be perfect to add beets to.  All I did to make it red was add the raw beets to simmer in the broth and they bled their color into the broth which I was using to cook the rice.  Thus we ended up with striking red rice.  And cute little heart-shaped beets as well. 

And it was as big a hit as I hoped for.  Owen ate the beets up (of course he did have to remind me before trying them that he didn't like beets last time), Jeremy got a special dinner, though it wasn't the candle-lit sit down dinner of anyone's dreams, and I was satisfied with a job well done--it's always nice when things turn out like you hope. 

For the sake of interest, beets aren't the only thing you can cut into hearts either.  I also put heart-shaped carrots in Owen's lunch Monday.

Red Heart Risotto

1 medium beet-washed and peeled
3 tablespoons butter-separated
1/2 cup onion-diced
1 cup rice (traditionally Arborio)
1/2 cup white wine (or substitute with more broth)
4 cups chicken broth
2oz fresh Parmesan cheese--grated (matchbook sized piece ungrated about 1/4 cup grated)

Put 2 tbsp butter in a large saute pan.  Add diced onions and cook until softened.  Meanwhile put broth in a pot over medium low heat an bring to a simmer.  Cut beets and add to simmering broth.

I cut the beet into 1/4 inch round slices.  Then cut each round like a pizza into 6 wedges.  Then shaped each wedge into a heart.  I tossed all the hearts and all the little trimmings into the broth.

When onions are softened, add the rice and stir for 1 minute to absorb any extra butter.  Add the wine and stir until rice has absorbed all the liquid.  Keeping the broth at a low simmer, adding it to the rice 1/2 cup at a time, waiting each time to add more until the liquid is mostly absorbed, stirring often.  The whole process should take about 30 minutes.  With the last 1/2 cup of broth transfer the beets into the rice pan as well.  When all the liquid is mostly absorbed turn off the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of butter and the cheese.  Add salt if needed and pepper.  Serve hot!

This is a good recipe without the beets as well, often I use mushrooms instead.  Put two tablespoons of butter in a different saute pan and 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms.  I cook those down and add them when I add the cheese.  Delicious and creamy and we'll eat it for our main dish.

Pasta with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms and Asparagus

One of my favorite things about this time of year is delicious fall food! After getting married and feeling more responsible for making healthful nutritious food than I had during singledom, I decided I needed to pay more attention to seasonal produce. Now the point is, nowadays you can get most produce year-round, but it make sense to me that produce would be at it's peak of flavor, and perhaps nutrition, at the time of year that it naturally grows as opposed to when it's growth is forced out of season. Whether or not that is true, here is what definitely is true: Produce is cheapest when it is in season. So I began to explore, and butternut squash jumped out at me!

There's something about butternut squash that makes me want to eat it. Maybe it's the nice shape and pink color of it's skin. Maybe it's the bright orange color of it's flesh. The flavor of butternut is mild, yet sweeter than pumpkin, and it is creamier than pumpkin--not so stringy. The following is a recipe I found that first fall. We loved it and have returned to it every fall since.

Pasta with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Asparagus

3 C sliced shiitake or chanterelle mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T snipped fresh rosemary
1 T olive oil
1/3 C dry white wine
1/3 C broth
1/3 C heavy cream
¼ t. salt
8 ounces bow tie pasta
1 pound butternut squash, cut into ½- inch pieces (about 2 C.)
8 ounces asparagus, cut in 2-inch pieces (about 1 ½ C.)
1/3 C shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet cook and stir mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary in olive oil over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in wine, broth, cream and salt. Bring to boiling; reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, about 4 minutes, or until sauce is the consistency of light cream and is reduced to 1 ½ C.

Meanwhile, in a large pot cook pasta according to package directions, adding the squash during the last 7 minutes of cooking, and adding the asparagus during the last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain, and return to warm pot. Add sauce and Parmesan cheese; toss to coat. Serves: 8

*You can see in my picture--we were a little low on "bow ties," so I mixed in some "spirals." If you want to substitute the white wine you may use broth. Look at how good this dish is to look at! Great color. By the way, this was also the first recipe that really helped me start enjoying mushrooms, another yummy fall treat.